For internet enthusiasts, the Exynos 9820 version of the Galaxy S10+ truly shines with significantly longer battery life compared to Snapdragon 855.
Comparing Battery Life between Exynos and Snapdragon on Galaxy S10+: Opt for Exynos if you're a web addict
For internet enthusiasts, the Exynos 9820 version of the Galaxy S10+ truly shines with significantly longer battery life compared to Snapdragon 855.
When looking at a flagship smartphone, people often first consider the specs and device size. However, not everyone is a hardcore gamer needing the most powerful CPU and GPU with the largest screen. A flagship's user experience requires a balance between performance and battery life.
The battery life of the Galaxy S10+ is still considered top-notch compared to other flagship devices. With a larger battery, more efficient screen, and the latest SoC processor, it's bound to bring significant improvements in battery life compared to last year's Galaxy S9. However, the Galaxy S10 comes with two different processor versions, Snapdragon 855 and Exynos 9820, so which version will provide better battery life for daily tasks?
Comparing Battery Life between Exynos 9820 and Snapdragon 855 on Galaxy S10+
AnandTech conducted tests on both processor versions of this smartphone under the most demanding conditions to compare their battery life. This means the screen resolution was set to 1440p and the battery was set to 'Performance' mode.
The results were truly surprising.
Battery life test results when browsing the web via wifi for both versions of Galaxy S10+
With wifi browsing tests, both versions of Galaxy S10+ demonstrated excellent battery life. However, while the Snapdragon version ended the test with a time of 12.75 hours, the Exynos version had even longer battery life, reaching 13.08 hours.
These results came as a surprise to AnandTech's reporters because in other tests, they had previously noted that the Exynos 9820 was less efficient than the Snapdragon 855 in terms of performance. Therefore, they did not expect the Exynos to catch up with Snapdragon, let alone surpass it by such a significant margin.
However, in the overall battery life test of PCMark Work 2.0, the Galaxy S10+ didn't maintain its performance as in the web browsing test. Nevertheless, these are still very impressive figures, and it can be seen that both processor versions have similar battery life. This time, the Snapdragon 855 version has slightly better battery life compared to the Exynos 9820.
To explain these results, it's important to note that the Exynos version has lower performance compared to Snapdragon, so it will spend more time on heavier tasks.
Meanwhile, the low-power Cortex-A55 cores of the Exynos 9820 actually consume less energy than Snapdragon 855 in tasks with very low workloads. This difference is around 20-30 mW, but it can increase to higher values for medium to heavy workloads.
Furthermore, one of the biggest improvements on the Galaxy S10 compared to previous devices isn't necessarily in the SoC processor or larger battery. In fact, it's the device's screen - also the part that consumes the most energy. In airplane mode, the energy consumption of the Galaxy S10+ is nearly 100 mW lower than the Galaxy S9+. This is truly a great improvement in battery life, especially considering the S10+ has a larger screen than the S9+.
Battery life of the Exynos 9820 version (left) and Snapdragon 855 version (right) based on real-world usage by AnandTech reporters
Currently, some Galaxy S10+ devices with the Exynos version are experiencing issues related to incorrectly switching to a low-power state after making a voice call in certain OTT applications. Therefore, the device's standby mode will consume more power until restarted.
Perhaps the future firmware update from Samsung will address this issue, as it's not a hardware issue. Currently unaffected by this glitch, both device variants exhibit similar and improved battery standby compared to the predecessor, Galaxy S9+.